Game



Nov. '5, 1934. B. F, WUPPER GAME Filed Aug. 16, 1930 Patented Nov. 6, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 6 Claims.

' My invention relatesgenerally' to games and has for its object the provision of a game appara-r tustwhich' is simple in construction and the objects of which may readily be comprehended,

which will appealto persons of a wide rangeof ages, and "in which both skill and chance play apart. z i

i A further object is to provide means'to change the. constants involved in the playing of the game 01 as to lend variety and increase the skill necessaryto play the game.

"Other objects will appear from they following description, reference being had to the accompartying drawing, in which: 1

11511 Figure 1 is a plan view of the game apparatus,

the various elevations of the board being indicated by contour lines; 1 -.Figures 2 and '3. are vertical sectional views taken :on the planes of lines 22' and 3--3, re-

spectively, of Fig. 1;' and Figures 4 and 5 are a side elevation and a bottom plan view, respectively, of aball retrieving and launching device.

The game apparatus is preferably mounted in a sheet metal box comprising side walls 10, end walls 12,.a bottom 14 and a suitable cover (not shown). The playing field 16 is preferably made ofglass, pressed sheetmetal or may bemolded out of any suitable plastic materials such as celluloid, a phenol condensation product or ceramic material. It is extremely desirable that the material have or be capable of receiving a hard smooth finishj If the field is made of sheet material it is preferably provided with a peripheral downwardly bent flange 18 which rests in cars 20 punched from the ends 12'and is held in place by lugs 22 turned inwardly from the upper'edges of the ends 12.

The upper surface of the field is formed into a plurality of smooth irregularly disposed unclulations. The righ-hand side of the field slopes generally toward the center, a portion thereof being marked as a starting field in any suitable manner as by a transverse line-24.

It is the object of the game to start a ball 28 from exposition of rest within the starting field so that it will roll into and come to rest in'certain hollows in theleft-hand portion of the field. The ball 28 is preferably made of a heavy hard material, a steel ball bearing being suitable.

The surface of the field in the embodiment i1- lustrated has eleven hollows lettered A to K, in-.

elusive, in which the ball may come to rest. The ball when launched haphazardly will come to rest in one of the hollows J and .Krby far the greatest number of times and will only come to rest in one of the hollows A to I, inclusive, a very small number of times, possibly about two times out of a hundred. The reason for this will become apparent from a consideration of the conditions necessary'to cause the ball to come to rest in one of the hollows A to I.

As statedthesurface of the field is hard, and it is free from any sharp changes in direction or degree of slope. It is smooth in the sense that there are no minor irregularities in the surface. Since the ball is also hard, theenergy dissipation due to rolling friction will take place slowly. The slope of the surface is at no place so steep that the ball will slide rather than roll. The ball when launched at s'omepoint in the starting field has a certain amount of potential energy, which as the ball 'rolls down is transformed into kinetic energy and again transformed into potential energy as the ball again rolls uphill. The only losses of energy will be due to air friction and rolling friction, which latter is preferably reduced to a minimum by selection of the proper materials and by finishing them assmoothly as practicable.

Thus, to succeed in causing the ball to come to rest in one of thehollows A' to I, the ball must be launchedat a level sufliciently'high that it will have energy enough to roll over the highest point in its path to the hollow, but the energy which it possesses must not exceed this value by an amount greater than that dissipated during the time that it rolls "down into the hollow, up to the other side of the hollow,back into the hollow and up to the highest point in its path of escape from the hollow.

Naturally if the energypossessedby the ball exceeds this specified limit, the ball will roll over the highest point in its path of escape fromthe hollow and thus come to rest in one of the lower hollows J or K. The energy dissipated during the time that the ball rolls down into a hollow, up the other side, again into the bottom of the hollow and up to the high point on the path of its escape from the hollow is of course relatively small, and therefore the extent of the positions at which the ball can be launched to come to rest in a particular hollow A to K is very definite and the space circumscribed by the range very small. i

This principle can best be illustrated by assuming that the ball shown in Fig. 2 travels only in the vertical plane of the cross section in which it lies, and that it is launched (released) from the position shown. The ball thus launched will roll pastthje hollow Hto the position 29 atthelevel of the line 30 is a distance at below level at which it was launched (represented by the line 32). The distance ac thus represents the (potential) energy lost by the ball on its forward (lef ward, Fig. 2) movement. On its return move ment the high point 33 on the path of escape of the ball from the hollow is shown at level of line 34, and the distance between lines 30 and 34 indicated as 11. If the potential energy of the ball represented by the distance y (the change in potential energy upon vertical movement through the distance y) is greater than the energy dissipated in friction as the ball moves from the point 29 to the point 33, the ball will escape from H, but,

if less, will of course come to rest in the hollow H. From the above it will be apparent that if the distance 1; is sufficiently great, the ballwill not come to rest in the hollow H on its first forward oscillation but may come to rest therein upon its second, third, or some subsequent forward oscillation. It will thus be observed that there are a plurality of points at which the ball may be launched to cause it to come to. rest in the hollow H.

As a matter of fact, due to the billowy nature of the surface of the field, the ball will probably never roll in a single vertical plane as assumed in the preceding paragraph, but will take a circuitous path of the nature represented by the dotted line 40 in Fig. 1. The selection of the proper spot at which to launch the ball thus involves a consideration of numerous factors, combining some of the difficulties of three cushion billiards with the intricacies of estimating the direction and force to be used in making a long putt on a hilly golf green.

I have described the theoretical principles underlying my invention since neither the contour lines in Fig. 1 nor the sectional view of Fig. 2 per fectly and completely illustrates the nature of the surface upon which the ball rolls, and it is desirable in making the apparatus to take into consideration these various factors so that it may have the maximum capacity for entertainment.

The device may be decorated to resemble a miniature golf course (as by painting the lower surface of the field, if made of thin glass) and may be played like golf, that is, by tallying the number of attempts made to lay the ball in a hollow, and the various hollows A to I numbered and played in succession. Various hazards, such as holes through which the ball may drop, or projections in the playing field, may be added to increase the difficulty of playing the game, although for the ordinary player the construction illustrated will present difficulties suflicient to maintain his interest. In Fig. 1 the letters M represent elevations, points higher than the surroundings.

The game may also be played in the manner of bagatelle, or in other ways which will readily suggest themselves to the user.

It is essential to most satisfactory and scientific playing of the game that every point upon the surface of the field have a slope sufficiently small that the ball if started from rest at that point would commence rolling rather than sliding. The

maximum permissible angle is thus dependent upon the relation between the sliding and rolling coefficients of friction of the ball and the surface upon which it rolls, and is also dependent upon the moment of inertia of rotation of the ball. For example, if the ball were a thin hollow shell the permissible angle of slope would be smaller than with a solid ball. The degree of accuracy of the sphericity of the ball is of course also a slight factor in determining the maximum.

For the purposes of illustrating the general nature of the invention, the angle of slope of the surface is exaggerated in the drawing, especially if materials having the preferred low ccefiicient of rolling friction are used. Preferably, the surface is of such conformation that the slope at no point closely approaches the permissible maximum, to make allowance for the fact that the apparatus may not always be placed upon a horizontal surface, and sometimes will intentionally be given a general slope, as will hereinafter appear.

,I have provided simple means whereby the factors involved in playing the game may be altered. This means comprises suitable adjustable devices to raise one end of the box which supports the field, illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3 as a pair of arms 42 frictionally pivoted on a shouldered rivet 44 secured in an end wall 12. The free ends of the arms 42 are movable in a slot 46, in one side of which are a plurality of notches 48 adapted to receive the arms. The arms are sufficiently resilient that they may be moved out of one notch into another.

Suitable means may be provided to aid in moving the ball to the launching spot, and in launching. In Figs. 4 and 5 such means is embodied in the form of a handle 50 having a tubular sideward projection 52 which is of greater internal diameter than the diameter of the ball. A device of this kind is desirable if the apparatus is made on so small a scale that the ball cannot be grasped easily. Other means such as a switch controlled electro-magnet may be used to move the ball to starting position.

While the device herein shown and described is admirably adapted to fill the objects primarily stated, it is to be understood that it is not intended to confine the invention to the formsof embodiment herein disclosed, for the invention is susceptible of embodiment in various forms all izoming within the scope of the claims which fol- I claim:

1. A game comprising a starting field sloping generally in one direction, a playing field integral with said starting field and having its surface continuous therewith, said playing field sloping generally in a direction opposite to that of the starting field but having a shallow hollow in its surface above the lowest point thereof, and a ball having a sufficiently low coefiicient of rolling friction with respect to the fields that it will roll back and forth from one field to the other several times before coming to rest, unless it happens to come to rest in said hollow.

2. A game device comprising a body with a smooth hard undulating surface sloping generally toward a restricted low region within the peripheral bounds of the body, the periphery of the surface of the body being at a substantially uniform high level, and the undulating sloping surface including a plurality of areas at different levels slightly lower than their bounding contiguous surfaces, the slope of said surface being such that the ball will ordinarily make a plurality of irregular excursions before coming to rest in one of said areas, when launched from a state of rest at a high point on the surface.

3. In combination an undulating hard surfaced body having a plurality of shallow hollows therein, and a hard ball rollable over the surface of said body, the slope of the surface of said body the ball will roll rather than slide.

4. The combination of a member having a hard smooth billowy surface sloping generally away from its peripheral edge and having a plurality of shallow hollows formed therein, said hollows being at different elevations, a hard spherical ball rollable upon said surface with very little friction and adapted when launched from a state of rest at a predetermined point on said surface to roll over said surface and come to rest in a predeter-v mined one of hollows, the slope of the surface of said member and the coefficient of friction between the surface and said ball being so correlated that the ball will roll and not slide when launched from a state of rest at any point on said member at which the surface is sloping, means to change the slope of said member as a whole, and a freely movable device for retrieving and launching said ball.

5. A game comprising a playing field having a surface sloping generally toward the center thereof and formed into a plurality of irregular mounds and shallow smoothly rounded hollows at different elevations, and a ball adapted to be rolled over said surface and come to a state of rest in one of said hollows when launched with the proper amount of energy, the slope of said field at all points thereof being sufficiently small to prevent said ball from sliding.

6. A game device comprising a body with a smooth hard undulating surface slopinggenerally toward a low region within the peripheral bounds of the body, the periphery of the surface of the body being at a substantially uniform high level, and the undulating sloping surface including a plurality of areas at different levels slightly lower than their bounding contiguous surfaces, and a ball adapted to be rolled upon the surface of said body and come to rest in one of said areas of lower level if launched from a state of rest at the proper point on said surface.

BENJAMIN F. WUPPER. 

